MAGFest, the annual gathering for people who love video games, music, and video game music, took place at its usual spot in National Harbor earlier this year. Though the festival’s musical offerings tend toward electronic fare, there are some musicians keeping the tradition of acoustic music alive.

Among these musicians is the Videri String Quartet. The Boston-based ensemble took center stage twice over the MAGFest weekend to perform tasteful arrangements of music from games like Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong, and Journey. After their shows were over, I sat down to chat with three integral members of the group: Roselie Samter (Viola), Lizzie Jones (Violin), and David Peacock (Arranger). Lounging on the beds of their hotel room, exhausted but still reveling in the thrill of the festival, the three begin to tell me the story of their group: their mission, history, and where they’re headed next.

MAGFest 13officially opened to the public for event registration and hotel reservations as of yesterday afternoon. The music & gaming festival, being held this year at a slightly different time a bit later in January and on a Friday to Monday stretch instead of the usual Thursday to Sunday, announced the start of their pre-event hype with the return of Machinae Supremacy, who debuted at the event last year as one of the headliners. Supremacy released 6 minutes of music from their upcoming album “Phantom Shadow” just last month, and is sure to have some of this new material primed and ready for MAG 13.

As usual, MAGFest will release more guest and band announcements within the coming months, so keep an eye here and on our Facebook page for updates. Pre-Registration for MAGFest 13 starts at $40 for full event admission with various supporter and group options. Rooms at the Gaylord National Harbor are currently open for reservation as well. (though are experiencing some difficulties through the website, so be sure to check with MAGFest about any booking issues) With Machinae being announced first, who knows what other big names could grace the halls and stages of the Gaylord this year.

May 5th will be extra special this year. Not only is it yours truly’s birthday (P.S. feel free to send me money), but we also get to enjoy the M3 media market. M3 is a convention held in Tokyo twice a year, once in spring, and the other in autumn. While most people would likely have only heard of Comiket, which is the largest of the media conventions, there is a distinct difference to the tone and selection between the two events. M3 is solely for multimedia items, and no doujinshi is really released there, unless accompanied with other products or previous releases. This means that there is plenty of doujin to be released, and we’ll take a small look at some of the releases announced so far.

MintJam is back in good fashion with their vocal EP Beyond The Eternity, featuring Rita. Rita has been quite prolific in the indie game scene with her voice, and previously worked with MintJam on the Little Busters! series. Magical Trick Society, Jeet Singh’s famous circle has new album coming called Melodies -RPG Piano Collection-, which is pretty self explanatory and will be arranged by Watamin, longtime collaborator of Jeet Singh. It will feature titles such as Chrono Trigger, Fire Emblem, Actraiser and Ogre Battle. One of the more interesting releases however is Ese’s Level Seven – 7th Dragon Arrange Album, which will be a metal arrange album of Yuzo Koshiro’s 7th Dragon. Ese is most well known as the man behind the circle Jesus Is Dead, and is a long time favorite in the scene.

With a plethora of Touhou Project and original works lined up, you can be sure to see many more names at M3, like IOSYS, ASIA LUNAR, IRON ATTACK!, FMPSG and takrockers!!. If you go, make sure to let us know, and have fun! M3 is held on May 5th at the Tokyo Ryutsu Center.

Are you going to Boston this weekend for the debut of Penny Arcade’s East Coast Expo? Great! We’ll be there too, carrying bags full of journalism, instant noodles and other terrible junk food that we’ll probably regret eating later. But more importantly, we’ll bouncing around the Hynes Convention Center like overstimulated Yorkshire terriers covering all sort of music-related happenings at PAX East.

Find a short round-up of some notable events and panels you might want to check out after the jump! (more…)

MAGFest 8 was my 5th time traveling to the humble convention in Virginia dedicated to the music and fan following of the videogame industry. I started following the arrangement scene after stumbling across The Minibosses in 2002, and shortly after signed up on their message boards, and my life surprisingly took a big turn. I had always been extremely passionate about videogame music since childhood, and the idea of a band arranging many of my favorite games was nothing short of mind blowing. As time went on, with many new friends and childhood dreams of setting foot in America, I finally had the chance to travel to MAGFest 4.

Since then, I haven’t missed a single event, and have been blessed with new members of my family and countless friends as a result. But looking back at the conventions, I always find myself wondering if it is purely the people and friends that makes me come out, or if the convention actually offers enough for me to shill out the money and effort? What memories do I leave with of the actual event itself?

That’s right, many of the staff members of OSV will be traveling out to spend New Years in Virginia at the Music and Gaming Festival, better known as MAGFest. This will be the 8th time the convention is taking place, and as always there will be plenty of bands, special guests and activities going on to spend your valuable time with.

Jayson Napolitano and yours truly, Audun Sorlie will be at hand to take part in the festivities, hanging out with the bands and taking in way too much alcohol for our fragile little bodies. and other staff members are sure to be coming as well. MAGFest takes place in Alexandria, VA at the Hilton Mark Center from January 1st to 4th, with concerts and events every day.

But what exactly can you expect this year? Well join me as I take a look at the line up for M8! (more…)

Covering and promoting discussion of composers and music with a focus on video games and other contemporary media entertainment

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